HYAKU RETSU KYAKUTWELVE SONNETS INSPIRED BY THE VIDEO GAME

AUTHORROSS SUTHERLAND

ILLUSTRATORSSONIA LEONG MIKKEL SOMMER GARETH BARNETT CHRIS GETLIFFE A LINE & A DOT LIZZY DENING INUA ELLAMS LAURA DOCKRILL ERIN PETSON JAMES MCGREGOR NICK HOLLOWAY PHILLIP OLDHAM ALEX WOODHEAD

DESIGNROSS SUTHERLAND

THANKS TOTOM CHIVERS TIM CLARE JOE DUNTHORNE POPSHOT MAGAZINE

PUBLISHED BYPENNED IN THE MARGINS

STREET FIGHTER 2

DEDICATED TO EVERYONE WHO DIED WHILST PLAYING VIDEO GAMES4 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Introduction Ryu E Honda Guile Blanka Dhalsim Ken Zangief Sonia Leong Chris Getliffe Mikkel Sommer A Line & a Dot Nick Holloway Ross Sutherland Phillip Oldham 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Chun Li Balrog Vega Sagar M Bison Notes Personality test Erin Petson Laura Dockrill James McGregor Inua Ellams Alex Woodhead

All characters used without permission but with great respect. Please dont sue me, its probably not worth it.

Ive never been any good at referencing Greek mythology. Its still common enough in contemporary poetry to make me feel like I should at least give it a shot, but every attempt Ive made just comes out like Im name-dropping a celebrity at a party. Hey guys these cocktail sausages are like, some sort of gift from the virgin goddess Artemis. Right? I just dont see myself in dialogue with that kind of literature. What am I supposed to do with them? What new thought can I possibly contribute to this beautiful set of wonderfully important texts? I might as well write James Joyce fan-fiction. Dont get me wrong. Im not against standing on the shoulders of giants. My poetry needs all the help it can get. But the Classics are too big. Theyre overpowering. They carry with them hundreds of years of reverence and value. Thats a rather conspicuous pair of stilts to wear to a poetry evening. Luckily, new mythologies are being created every day, not least in the world of video games. In the cast of Street Fighter 2, I think I found a set of characters that could still benefit from some additional eulogising. We can work together in equal partnership, without me feeling like Im pissing on Don Paterson. For the uninitiated, Street Fighter 2 is a beatem-up game, first released in the arcades by Capcom in 1991. The plot is loosely cribbed from Bruce Lees Enter The Dragon: evil megalomaniac M Bison decides to host a street-fighting tournament. Twelve competitors enter, each with their own personal motivation for winning the tournament. The player chooses their representative, then guides them through the tournament, ending on a final battle with Bison himself. Theres a formal elegance about the cast of Street Fighter 2. They feel like the perfect model for a new strain of mythology. After all,

here are twelve heroes, just as two-dimensional as heroes of yore, together with a complex interlocking back-story. Just like the Classics, the fighters here are predominantly allegorical. Together, they span the breadth of the human condition: we have Zangief, a Russian wrestler fighting for a crumbling republic; Chun Li, an Interpol agent determined to avenge her fathers murder; Vega, a masked bullfighter who believes his strength is in his beauty; and Dhalsim, a yogic soothsayer who has channelled his spiritual enlightenment into the power of being really bendy. Pride, Vengeance, Vanity, and Bendiness: the human psyche broken down into its most primary elements. The cast of Street Fighter exist within all of us, constantly fighting it out for supremacy. Each new challenge is a fresh shake of the juju bones: Pride may conquer Honour, Wrath may conquer Pride... one by one, the pieces fall into place, leading towards a final confrontation with Fate itself (Its no surprise that both Zeus and Bison favour the lightning bolt as weapon of choice). Id like to suggest that everyone has a character from Street Fighter that they feel closer to spiritually than the others: someone who seems to symbolise their own journey through the maze. For those readers yet to decide on their Spirit Fighter, I have included a completely arbitrary personality test at the back of the book. Finally, I urge other writers to dip into this mythology for themselves, particularly if they have an interest in the Classics. Street Fighter 2 spans several continents, containing not only echoes of Greek and Roman mythology, but encompassing Eastern histories as well. Of course, Im not saying that this makes Street Fighter 2 an improvement on studying the Classics. OK I am saying its an improvement. So stick that. .

M Bison: Guile:

You have made me a very happy man. And next, Ill make you a dead one.

- STREET FIGHTER, THE MOVIE (1994)

RYU150lbs

JAPAN

From fairest heroes we desire a code that locks their bare soles to the dojo floor. Traditionally, the four kanji disclosed in Chapter Seven of the Art of War. Not CROUCH, CROUCH FORWARD, WALK FORWARD, then PUNCH. He thinks this, as he pushes out his palms, blowing a cannonball of chi, a lung of fire, right through a nearby field of corn. Hadouken, says our hero, feeling cheap, recalling master Sheng Longs Final Thought: how keeping oneself pure did not just mean Hadoukening at everything you saw. Whoever fights like wind has but one blow; they only fight themselves in different clothes.

A student of master Sheng Long, Ryu has developed into a pure warrior. Ryu has no home, no friends and no family. Instead, he wanders the globe seeking to test his skills against other fighters. SNES MANUAL

PICTURE: SONIA LEONG

E.HONDA304lbs

JAPAN

PICTURE: CHRIS GETLIFFE Last year, at Minami-za, Kyoto, he saw Kamakura stop time, swan out on the hanamichi like a game show host, heavy with answers, turn about and wink before killing the frozen soldiers. In the empty bathhouse, he thinks of this. How peace before battle feels now no more than ostentation. Edmund writes out his fathers poem: steam hides the bather / yet it condenses into / ladles of water. Hands upon his starched equator, displaced from the vacuum of his stable he hears the crowd sound out the pattern: one hundred single hands, all clapping.

Edmund Honda has been trained since birth to take his place as the greatest sumo wrestler to ever step into the ring. Upon receiving the title of Yokozuna or Grand Champion, Honda vowed to prove that sumo wrestlers are the greatest fighters in the world. Hondas great advantage is his size. He loves to pound his opponents into corners and then knock them out with a quick series of punches. SNES MANUAL

GUILEUSA191lbs

An ex-member of an elite special forces team, Guile and his co-pilot Charlie were captured during a mission in Thailand six years ago. During their perilous trek to civilisation, Charlie dies and Guile has been consumed by vengeance ever since. By whipping his hands and arm through the air, Guile is able to create a burst of energy called the Sonic Boom. This energy speeds towards an opponent and momentarily stuns anyone it hits. SNES MANUAL

191lbs

USA

Rotated into Tan Son Nhut, the young airman became the toast of mess hall brawls. Scrawled on his locker: WHAT SIDE R U ON? after rupturing a sergeants abdominal wall. Later, in Thailand, hair an airstrike, he gives his unit the Coppola speech: Francis was a fag. Theres nowhere to hide. The Nung rivers busy as Bondi Beach. If your friend was called Charlie you called him Charlie. And when he fought like a bullwhip you were his echo. See? Holding up twin dogtags, knuckles whitening in his grip: Move fast and they wont hear you running. Let the kids count for thunder that aint coming

PICTURE: MIKKEL SOMMER

Very little is known about this bizarre fighter from the jungles of Brazil. For years, the natives have reported seeing a half-man, half-beast roaming the rain forests. Using a technique he learnt from electric eels, Blanka can channel up to 1,000 volts through his skin. Anyone who tries to grab him during this time is in for a shocking discovery. SNES MANUAL

The child held up his necklace: a rusty nine-volt battery, threaded through with wire. Homem branco, he said, his other hand thrust forward, in spasm, as if to summon fire. Soon after, Maurices fine white hair flew straight up, like a column, as if he had rubbed it against the balloon of the moon. Oblivious, the old man just waved back. At closing time, the tar sky turned to TV. Men with rifles ran into the trees. Later, their corpses showed signs of a beating, yet not enough to stop their heartbeat. They were earthed straight away. Back at the school I watched their children pitch lightbulbs at the wall.

BLANKAPICTURE: A LINE & A DOT218lbs

BRAZIL

DHALSIMINDIA107lbs

The yogi closed his eyes for thirty days, palms focused, as the monasterys flame, once fed from a natural vent, was replaced with a bunsen, piped through from Bakus mains. Picturing Agni, one of his heads incensed, the other butchered, final shallow breaths like rotten eggs, the morbid stench of dense hydrocarbons in the smelt of his chest, the yogi counted down eight steps: stretched beyond flesh and the exhale of texts, the icy sunset, a special effect to be added in later. The old man wept to the generators apocryphal song; humming in darkness, the counterfeit Om.

Dhalsim has sought to unify his mind, body and soul through the discipline of Yoga. Now as he nears his goal, he must test himself and his skills before he can rise to a higher state of consciousness. SNES MANUAL

PICTURE: NICK HOLLOWAY

KEN169lbs

USA

Reset! OK, everyone, places please. This time lets try it on the motorbike. No Ken, we need some close-ups. Then well see what happened to your cappuccino. Lights! Dont start the engine, Ken. Just look intense. Thats... yeah. Makeup, can we touch-up the scars? Action. Cue fire. Dont look into the lens! I know its your life story, but some parts will require the script. Next is the shot where you decide to run off to LA. Now, walk out on your father. Good. Now stop right on your mark. Lets see a smile, and... hey... your face... Ken, is this you trying to act? Chair for Ken! Can we get one with a back?

PICTURE: ROSS SUTHERLAND & LIZZY DENING

The only other disciple of master Sheng Long, Ken is a natural athlete. Unfortunately, Kens natural fighting skill has fuelled his giant ego. For the past year, Ken has let his skills deteriorate, spending most of his time making action films and lying on the beach with his girlfriend. Only a challenge from Ryu has rekindled his fighting spirit. SNES MANUAL

PICTURE: PHILLIP OLDHAM

ZANGIEFRUSSIA256lbs

Arriving on the black isles shores alone, the Russian picks his partner from the trees, fur stinking of shit, its idle drone a waltz, the final dance of amputees. His thumb pushes back its narrow skull, the claw lacerations masked by ginseng, the thin air, leaving his sense so dull that the snap of its neck is unconvincing. It makes a map of Russia with its death: the ice cracking beneath it, slick with red. Perhaps this is why the wrestler hefts the beast a mile back to the boat instead of cleaning wounds or bandaging his veins: he bleeds until he sees those stars again.

Many believe that Zangief entered the tournament out of his fierce respect for his country, but they are only partially correct. Zangief loves his country, but he loves to stomp on his opponents even more. What else would you expect from a man who wrestles bears for fun? SNES MANUAL

Chun Li has not entered the tournament for personal glory. Instead, she has been secretly tracking the movements of an international smuggling operation known as Shadaloo. The trail has led her to the tournament and she now believes that one of the Grand Masters may have been responsible for the death of her father. SNES MANUAL

New for the file: one hundred kilograms of methamphetamine seized in transit from Guangzhou. Seven Cambodians, slit ear to ear. A paper trail, too scenic to safely tread. Still, she knows the climb. Her father had followed it once. His head, once fished-out, was added to the file. INTERPOL, like his partitioned ghost, had no strength to exact revenge. She grips the rings, levitating, the crash mat hairs below her head. Only through weightlessness, she thinks, can I ascend this narrow path. My footsteps must not touch these pages. Below this line, the surface stays stainless.

CHUN-LI??lbs

CHINA

PICTURE: ERIN PETSON

PICTURE: LAURA DOCKRILL

BALROG252lbs

USA

Boxers can make a ring of any room. Theyll find their corner and wait for the bell, be it a nod, a smile, the clink of a spoon that flashbulbs the brainstem, unlocks the cells. Ten years without a sniff of referee, he knows every outcome is pre-reckoned, He floats like a barfly stung for a G, throws nicknames away like murder weapons. Christ Mike, who cares what they call you? For all his shit, in the end, Ali got it right: shook with rhymes, eyes suckered closed, his exit toll from Quezon: This must be what death feels like. Meaning, I am Death: the nameless witness with a list of names. Choose one. Then run shitless.

A former heavyweight champion, Balrog was barred from professional boxing after he ignored the rules of the ring. Wild and aggressive, Balrog now makes a living brawling on the streets of Las Vegas and occasionally picks up a buck as hired muscle for M. Bison. Subscribing to the theory that whoever hits the hardest wins, Balrog is all brawn and very little brain. SNES MANUAL

VEGA208lbs

PICTURE: JAMES McGREGOR

SPAIN

A reflection can cut a man in two: a guillotine straight through the anima. It reveals to the bullfighter, the bull. The victim, the killer. The Spaniard looks in the mirror and sees only beauty. The blood-soaked towel still in his hands. The brute pinned to the wall like a calendar. Truly these eyes could never pierce a breast. (Keats: truth is beauty.) His second shave of the day, he plucks each lashe like a master craftsman, and when the priceless artwork is recaged, the claw retrieved, the mask refastened, the murderer rejoins the noonday shift: eyes like Apollo, hollowed to the tip.

Of noble blood, Vega has successfully blended the Japanese art of Ninjitsu with the skills he learned as a matador. Vain and egotistical, Vega lives by the philosophy that beauty is strength. Despising anything ugly, Vega views himself as perfect and uses a mask to prevent his face from becoming scarred in battle. Used by M. Bison primarily as an assassin, Vega often dispatches his opponents using his claw. SNES MANUAL

Once called King of the Street Fighters, Sagat reigned supreme until his narrow defeat at the hands of Ryu, a fight in which he lost an eye and gained a giant scar across his chest. Humiliated at his loss, he now plans to regain the title at any cost. Sagats Muay Thai fighting style is thought to be the most powerful in the world. SNES MANUAL

On the Burma border, each refugee can bare scars and claim theyre champion of a nebulous back-alley league. Each camp with a jerry-built pantheon determined to bop their way to Bangkok barefisted. Thailands ex-directory elite, monocular and beta blocked, moves himself into their trajectory. These men will fight to the death, when able, yet he enters the ring without caution. They stare at his wound, scarred chin to navel, as if they could wear him like a costume. The Cyclops eye prophesises their fate: no distance to run; no depth to a grave.

SAGAT283lbs

THAILAND

PICTURE: INUA ELLAMS

Never has a man been more cloaked in secrecy than M. Bison. Ever since he emerged to lead the international criminal organization Shadaloo, the world has been awed by the incredible power at his command. Seen as the master of evil, Bison rules over his empire with an iron fist. By channelling his psychic energy through his body, Bison is able to levitate and surround himself with a powerful flaming aura. He has organised the World Warrior tournament in order to get revenge against the enemies of the Shadaloo. SNES MANUAL

M.BISON????254lbs

The authors eyes, empty Coliseums. Long bleached of blood, sterilised exit-wounds. He parts the safety curtain, blue neon autographing the air with his nom de plume. You feel like youve murdered this guy before. For greed, glory. Maybe vengeance. Or sport. And yep, you have. Seconds after, reborn, he headed back up the mountain for more. Sometimes those other timelines feel so near, you forget why youre doing this. As if Jupiter, slouched in his electric chair, was just mashing buttons; trying to hit blindly upon a miracle, proclaim his divinity, then unplug the game.

PICTURE: ALEX WOODHEAD

NOTESE HONDA Edmund wears the makeup of Kamakura Gongoro Kagemasa, the main character of the Kabuki play, Shibaraku. The climactic moment of this play comes when a goodly samurai is being assaulted by a number of villains. Kagemasa shouts Shibaraku! (Stop a moment!) loudly from offstage, then steps out onto the hanamichi (a raised platform extending through the audience) in magnificent costume and makeup. His arrival freezes time, allowing him to sit on a stool and deliver a monologue. He then restarts time and drives the villains off. DHALSIM Dhalsim is praying at The Fire Temple of Baku, known locally as the Ateshgyakh (home of fire). Ateshgyakh is a monastery complex in Surakhani in Azerbaijan, now a museum. At the centre of the temple was an undying flame, fed by a vent from a subterranean natural gas field. However, heavy exploitation of the natural gas reserves in the area during Soviet rule resulted in the flame going out in 1969. This sonnet is set on the last day before the fire dies: Dhalsim has come to pray while the flame is transferred over to a mains gas pipe. BALROG The character of Balrog was originally based on Mike Tyson. He was the original M Bison character. In order to protect themselves from a copyright infringement lawsuit, Capcom switched around the names of the characters when the game was given a Western release. Balrog has now left the spectre of Tyson far behind him, becoming a powerful cultural icon in his own right. Tyson, however, still looks like the sort of drone enemy youd expect to beat up in a video game. SAGAT Muay Thai Boxing is Thailands national sport. During the Ayudhya period, which was a period of consecutive fighting against the neighbouring countries of Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam, historical sources say that King Sri San Petch (known as The Tiger King) often boxed incognito in various up-country temple fairs. He is said to have been a skilled boxer, and enjoyed the sport so much that he often disguised himself in order to test his skill against villagers. Here, Sagat is echoing Sri San Petch, fighting Burmese immigrants who are desperately trying to secure entrance to Thailand though illegal Muay Thai competitions.

PLAYER SELECTQ1Which of these statements best describes you?

Q4

Across the street, a man lies face-down on the pavement.

a) I like knowing what I have to do at all times. b) I have to see a task through personally to the very end. c) I think theres something Im supposed to be doing. d) I am comfortable with delegating responsibility.

a) The street is busy. Someone else will take control of this situation. b) The man is probably an alcoholic. If I try to help, he may attack. c) The man is probably part of an art project. If I try to help I may end up spoiling the art. d) I alone can save this man.

Q2

A new person wanders over to the group you are speaking with. What do you do? a) Wait for an opportunity to bring them into the conversation. b) Shift your body to give them room in the circle, smile. c) Stop the conversation and welcome him/her in. d) Nothing.

Q5

A factory. What does it produce?

a) Solar-powered calculators. b) Kingsize cigarettes. c) Chicken products. d) Nothing.

Q3

What compliment are you most likely to receive?

Q6 A painting. As you can see, it depicts a nude, gravely holding abunch of grapes. Where would you like me to hang it? a) Above the fireplace, please. b) Top of the stairs. c) The bathroom. d) The guest bathroom.

a) You have wonderfully straight teeth. b) You are kind to messengers. c) You know a good deal when you see one. d) A general compliment (youre really great, etc).

Q7 Which of these songs best describes you?a) Baby b) Born in the USA c) Gloria d) Apache

Q11a)

Which one of these is incorrect? b)

Q8

A friend needs help moving house.

a) Outside: cold September sunlight. I ask my six-year old son what it looks like out there. Toilet light, he says. b) Each night, I am woken by sirens. When this happens, I usually forget my dream completely, unless I am passed by another emergency vehicle later the same day. If one passes, the entire dream returns to me, in one terrifying three-second data-burst. I am left feeling slightly disorientated, and often accidentally attribute symbolic value to my immediate surroundings. c) No one closes the online email accounts of the dead. You dont want to look in there, trust me. d) People need to accept certain things, and thats all there is to it.

c)

d)

Q9

Soldiers are marching on the castle.

a) Egg the graveyard lion. Take that, Father! You never asked for this! b) Hide the diaries. Fake the logbooks. Perhaps you can shift some of the blame to the IT Helpdesk. c) Open all the doors! Undermine everything theyre fighting for! d) Cut your heart out and throw it at the biggest one. Its what they want anyway, and theres a small chance youll survive. You re-read the last message on your mobile phone. You keep staring at it and staring at it until it becomes the most chilling thing you have ever read. This message is wrong, you think. It is wrong. I dont know why, but I dont think it belongs in this universe. a) I am trapped on the ring-road when the fighter jets appear. b) My earliest memory turned out to be a photo of someone else. c) Leaving the house is vapid self-promotion. d) Nothing but the antique disappointment of British weather.

Give yourself 1 point for any (a), 2 points for (b), 3 points for (c), 4 points for (d). 10-12 points: you are Blanka 13-15 points: you are E Honda 16-18 points: you are Balrog 19-21 points: you are Dhalsim 22-24 points: you are Guile 25-27 points: you are Ken 28-30 points: you are Ryu 31-33 points: you are Chun Li 34-36 points: you are Zangief 37-39 points: you are Vega 40-42 points: you are Sagat 43-44 points: you are M Bison. turn to page 9 turn to page 7 turn to page 14 turn to page 10 turn to page 8 turn to page 11 turn to page 6 turn to page 13 turn to page 12 turn to page 15 turn to page 16 turn to page 17

Q10

Ross Sutherland was born in Edinburgh in 1979. He has written two other collections of poetry: Things To Do Before You Leave Town (2009) and Twelve Nudes (2010), both published by Penned in the Margins. His one-man show, The Three Stigmata of Pacman, has been touring nationally since 2008. In 2011 he produced a documentary about computer-generated poetry, called Every Rendition On A Broken Machine. He currently lives in Cambridge. www.rosssutherland.co.uk